


Short Stories

by Wakeuptomorrow



Category: Original Work
Genre: #shortstory, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 00:54:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16843879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wakeuptomorrow/pseuds/Wakeuptomorrow
Summary: This is just a collection of short stories I wrote. Hope you like! No stealing.*=*





	Short Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dystopian society set in the 1870s. A boy and a girl are sent to a labor camp. (No romance)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, this is my first dystopian story, so I hope you like! The class I wrote this for limited it to three pages, so it turned out more like a vignette. TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of transphobia, starvation, and verbal abuse.

Aven had never felt hunger before today. His rusted shackles dug in his wrists as leering guards jostled him along with the rest of the prisoners. He did not belong here. Why had they taken him? 

“Come along, girl, we’re nearly there.” A rather meaty guard chuckled hoarsely as he shoved Aven to the wall of the large plane that would take them to the labor camp. 

_ I am not a girl.  _ Aven thought, though he stayed silent. They would never understand that the word had already crushed him. He didn’t know if he wanted them too. The thin, roughed up girls around him had began to board, though one lingered, only a bit away from Aven.

“667, lets go!” The guard said, squinting at the lingering girl’s worn jumpsuit. “Unless you already want to be put in isolation?” 

Her eyes wouldn’t leave the ground, though she stayed defiant. “I have a name you know! And I’m beginning to think that isolation might be better than whatever godforsaken camp we’re going to.” She was the shortest of the small group, maybe six or seven. Her little fists tightened into balls as she spoke, though her voice wavered.

“Maybe you oughta keep your eyes open, Fodder. She’s the one that ran away. Repeat offender too.” A gangly guard with a slender baton looped loosely through his belt remarked. He mumbled a bit more about her, but Aven couldn’t hear because his eyes had fixed on the baton. The IRSA had bred fear in him that made him terrified of the armed guard. The weapons had been used, he knew.

“Who, this little thing? She ain’t got a finger on me, do yah, little girlie? Now, you don’t disrespect the IRSA Adolescent Girls Camp Rehabilitation Unit, by trying to run with those skinny legs of yours.” Fodder chuckled, kneeling down and jerking her chin towards him with a plump hand. His other hand gripped tightly onto her shoulder. Aven saw how her strikingly pale eyes against chocolate skin were tearing up. “See Hickleman, she ain’t got nothin’ on me. We’ll fix that little defiant streak in you, won’t we, little girl?”

She finally gained her senses and jerked her face away. “Please… let go of me…”

Fodders looked at her for a moment, disgusted, and stood up, brushing off his standard issue khakis. “Get inside with the rest of the lot.”

Aven looked around, realizing that they were the only ones still outside. They hurried onto the plane, and took the last two seats near the doorway. As it took off, Aven saw silent tears falling from the young girl’s face.

“What’s your name?”

Her thin, malnourished body turned, panicking, to Aven’s muddied face. Seeing that he meant no harm, she wiped her nose of the sleeve of her jumpsuit and muttered, “Ruth. You?”

“Aven. Good to meet somebody. They put me in the wrong unit.”

Ruth head tilted slightly to the left, curiosity winning over tears. “Whaddya mean? I thought there was only one unit.”

“No, well, I was supposed to be put in with adolescent boys. Guess it doesn’t matter in the long run.” Aven felt his usual cohesiveness fly out the dusty window of the plane, a million frantic thoughts about this camp flying through his head.  _ Why am I here? I am not a girl. _

She gave him a once over, surprise flashing across her small face. “Hmm. Nothing matters in this place.”

“You’ve been here before?”

“Nah, this world, though, I’ve known too long.”

He couldn’t help but ache inside. Her badge said she was six. “What got you in here, anyhow?”

“What, you mean you weren’t eavesdropping outside the jet? I got caught for running. My mom snuck my rations, so I was starved. I just needed something to get me up in the morning, but by the time I left my unit, they had eyes on me.”

Aven didn’t need to ask who  _ them  _ was. The IRSA had been in strict control ever since the heaping debt in the US caused a military coup. Abe Lincoln had to sell the US to keep our nation alive, but they shot him twice in the head as soon as he signed his legacy away. Funny how that works.

During the ride, they spoke endlessly to try and ignore their destination. 

“I can’t believe that officer back there, Fodders I think, was talking to you like a little girl. He must’ve known you were in the wrong place. Why didn’t you correct him?” Her curiosity bubbled up in her questioning stare.

“I dunno, I guess I’m no good with stuff like that. They could do so many things… they’ve done so many things. It’s hard to talk to someone who’s just an inch from being pushed too far.”

“I guess so. But they’re going to hurt you anyway. Might as well try and get your voice heard,” Ruth said. They were quiet for the last bit of the ride.

…

He had to get out of here. Ruth pulled his sore body toward the masses of under-fed girls with dinner trays that were smacked over someone’s head with if another girl cut. Old tables creaked under the weight on more than twice what it should've held, because everyone knew what happened if you couldn’t find somewhere to sit. Lunch was usually their only meal, so Ruth’s eagerness was expected. The first star he had seen in her eyes since they met a couple days ago made him smile softly.

“Come on, Ave! They’re almost out, and that last track had me breathless!” They had been laying tracks all day near the western side of the unit for some large railroad the IRSA seemed hurried to get down.

As they ate in silence, Aven was reminded of the days when he could walk around in boy’s pants and not worry. When his classmates stopped looking at him weird when he joined boys’ teams. When he tried to go to a public boys’ restroom for the first time, even though he was born a girl. When the IRSA took him away. Screaming. Being all alone. Darkness.

Ruth interrupted his darkening thoughts with a panicked look she gave over his shoulder. His head whipped around to see a snarling female guard. 

“Who do you think you are, little girl? I’ve heard of you, waltzing like you know what’s up? You think you are some boy, some sort of man, huh? Heard that’s why you’re in here, you little jerk. Disgracing the women’s reputation.”

Aven immediately looked down, terrified. “I’m.. I’m so sorry.. I just, think that…” he saw the defiant look on Ruth’s face and tried to use some of her courage. “That, I’m a boy and that’s all. They just got my body wrong. I don’t belong here,” Aven said.

Her badge read Florez. “That’s crazy. You’re just a spoiled brat, so starved for attention. And like the stars you don’t. You steal clothes from your own father, you trespass into the boys bathroom. You ought to be in here longer than you’ll be. You make me sick.” She spat.

Aven’s eyes welled up. “I never stole.”

“That’s it.” Florez roughly grabbed his wrist. “Isolation, five days. Seif, come take her off my hands.”

A tall man with buzzed hair stepped out from directing the foot traffic and whisked Aven away. Seeing Ruth’s bright eyes fill up with worried tears grew rage inside Aven’s chest. 

“Oh calm, kid. I didn’t care what you are, but isolation’s wrong. I'm here to help you. Five days isn’t enough for me to get you out entirely. But I can at least get you to the boys unit down south. They’ll give a bit more food, and you get out of iso this time.”

Aven’s thoughts swirled in startled confusion. Though he thought he’d be elated to leave his short visit of berating and misgendering, his mind kept hardwiring back to Ruth. She was starved back home. She was going to be starved here. She would get in trouble. She must be so scared. 

“Ruth is only six.”

“Oh, was that the skinny little black girl across from you? She was lookin’ mighty teary when I took you, poor thing.”

Aven stopped walking, forcing Seif to look at him. “I can’t go to isolation I-“

“I know. So come with me.” He was starting to look frustrated.

“I can’t go to the boys unit either. That’s all I could think about when I got here, but I can’t leave. Ruth isn’t even out of first grade. Her momma doesn’t feed her right. She can’t be alone.”

“Little boy,” it felt so comforting to hear him say boy, ”others will find her. She won’t get into too much trouble. Don’t worry about her.”

Aven trembled when he realized his answer didn’t change. “I can’t. But, please, I can’t stay in isolation, either.”

Seif’s face frowned in confliction. After a minute, he answered. “I can speak with the big man. I’ve got my connections.” He shifted, pulling a spare pad out of his pocket and scribbling with a blue pen. “Here’s a pass for the rest of the day. Right now everyone thinks you’re supposed to be in iso.”

Aven smiled as he took the pink slip. Isolation had scared him more that he realized. “What’s your first name?”

The man’s weary face grinned back. “Amal, but please call me Jamila. It’ll be our little secret.” She winked.

Aven was not a girl, and he was not alone. She led him back to the cafeteria and left before Aven could say thank you. 

Ruth looked up from her discarded food, her blue eyes almost dull and tear tracks obvious. When she saw Aven free of any guard, she leaped up. Eyes brightened with happy tears streaming down her face, she bounded toward him. He held her in a long hug. Ruth would be okay as long as he was here. It didn’t matter that he was in the wrong unit anymore. She would never be starving again.

  
  
  



End file.
